John Coltrane’s Mic

One of the most exciting things about my recording session was that I used the mic that John Coltrane used to use when he was alive. The mic is RCA vintage ribbon mic that people don’t use much. It has nice warm core sound that U87 (on the right side of the picture) doesn’t have.

Mike, recording engineer atSystem Two, set up the mic with U87 together so that it fills up the middle part of my saxophone sound that U87 is relatively weak. U87 is the one of the greatest mic in the world. Since it has clean and crystal sounds, vocalists specially love it. U87 is actually good enough itself for all purposes. However, it is a bit bright for horns to me. Specially high register. Of course you can get warmer sound using a tube preamp.

I recommend you to use the ribbon mic along with U87 or any modern condensor mic if you want to have a unique vintage warm sound. I recorded my album New Song with this setup. Check out my album if you are interested in it.